notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Friday, August 21, 2009
*******************************************
TALAAT & CO.
************************************************** *
There is only one victim mentioned in the entry on Talaat Pasha (spelled Talat Pasa) in the ENCYCLPAEDIA BRITANNICA (1979 edition): himself; and only one Armenian, his assassin.
Please note that, entries in reputable reference works like the BRITANNICA are, as a rule, penned not by nationalist historians with an ax to grind but by so-called objective, impartial, and internationally respected scholars.
As for our great revolutionary heroes: as far as I know, none of them is accorded an entry or even a single line in the BRITANNICA.
Moral: Don't believe everything you read, especially when the subject is politicians and their place in history.
*
All talk of good and evil in a political context is relative and dependent on whose ox is being gored. Who could be more evil than an honest politician (assuming of course he exists) who leads the nation to war, defeat, and genocide?
*
We like to speak of Lincoln and FDR as shining examples of great statesmen. But in the eyes of millions of Americans Lincoln is no better than Talaat, FDR might as well be a brother to Stalin, and Obama another Hitler.
At one time or another even Nobel Prize winners like Hamsun, Shaw, Churchill, Sartre, and Malraux were taken in by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao.
*
Sometimes knowing only one side of the story is worse than knowing nothing if only because total ignorance may lead to curiosity, and partial knowledge may lead to prejudice, hatred, war, and massacre.
In this context it is safe to assume that the brainwashed outnumber the objective, impartial, and honest a thousand to one (assuming he exists).
I am reminded of Hegel's famous last words: “No one understood me except one, and even he didn't understand me.”
But according to Schopenhauer, Hegel was one of the greatest charlatans that ever crawled between heaven and earth.
*
Whenever there is any talk of good and evil in human affairs, I am reminded of the African chieftain as quoted by C.G. Jung: “When I steal my enemy's wives, it's good. When he steals mine, it's bad.”
*
General Antranik is known to Azeris as an “ethnic cleanser” or their Talaat. Propaganda? Not quite. A Tashnak leader once confided to me: “We had to get rid of him (General Antranik) because he went on a rampage massacring indiscriminately defenseless women and children.”
The same General Antranik once stated: “I am not a nationalist. I am on the side of the oppressed regardless of nationality.”
*
Whom can we trust?
My answer: Keep an open mind and trust no one, especially someone with an ax to grind, a score to settle, and a blunder to cover up.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Saturday, August 22, 2009
*******************************************
NOTES & COMMENTS
************************************************** *
The perpetrators of the Genocide saw all Armenians as their mortal enemies. We make the same mistake when we see all Turks the same way.
*
“No one understands Turks as well as we do,” bragged Oshagan. What he didn't say is what exactly did he do with his superior brand of understanding.
*
What matters is not what we know but what we do with our knowledge -- beside dropping our pants and bending over – if you will forgive my French.
*
It is because we don't understand our enemies that we don't understand one another; and because we don't understand one another we view dissent as treason. Every failing or transgression has its own inbuilt punishment.
*
I cherish my mediocrity if only because I owe my continued existence to it. We all know what happens to those who dare to achieve excellence.
*
Panturkism: a movement whose aim is to unite Turks of the world.
There is no corresponding Armenian movement.
*
We like to speak of treaties as if they were Holy Writ carved in stone. “Treaties,” General de Gaulle has said, “are like girls and roses: they last while they last.”
And sometimes, unlike girls and roses, they don't even last.
*
We recognize two ways of solving a problem:
(one) to pretend it doesn't exist, and
(two) to classify it as insoluble.
*
We use the phrase “We need solutions” as synonymous with “Shut up!”
*
A fanatic is one in whose Decalogue there is only one commandment: “Thou shalt hate unto death anyone who dares to disagree with the party line.”
#

[Anoush]

Re: elegy

What do you think he is doing most of the time? And if you notice the 'style' he has chosen for his writings - a phrase or two followed by *- contributes greatly to this purpose (i.e.: taking sayings out of context to prove his empty point).

Not only that, after Ara is debated very fairly for his most pro-turkish goverment and pro-"azeri" genocidal pogroms comments and talks as well as his comments that "Vartanants baderazm" never existed and our empirical "Dikran Meds" was a coward; right after such debates he starts with his essays of throwing trash like "panchoonis" and "white trash". Well if and when he is meaning that towards his debater than I say he is the "panchooni" and he is most certainly the "white trash" himself.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, August 23, 2009
*******************************************
SERMON
************************************************** *
As you grow older, your childhood acquires a different complexion. You begin to realize that those who shaped your worldview were fallible human beings like yourself and most of what they said was nonsense motivated by uncertainty, confusion, and fear. That's when you begin to think for yourself and rely less on someone else's judgment.
*
Nationalist historians are children who refuse to grow up. They continue to classify their fellow men as friends and enemies. They continue to preach patriotism even after they recognize it as the root of all prejudice, xenophobia, lies, conflicts, wars, and massacres. Some of them may have second thoughts but by then it may be too late because propaganda is the only field of human endeavor in which they excel. It is, in other words, their bread and butter, and you will be surprised what men are capable of doing in defense of their source of income and their ability to provide for their family.
*
Generally speaking, people are not disposed to hate or harm men they know nothing about. But expose them to propaganda and they turn into killers and are admired as heroes.
*
My critics tell me I repeat myself. But I suspect, deep down it is not my central message that bores them but their fear of losing their infantile illusions. They say the same prayers every day and listen to the same sermons against sin every Sunday; they read the same anti-Turkish editorials and commentaries in our weeklies; and it doesn't even occur to think of them as repetitions. But confront them with a different message for the second time, and immediately they recognize it as repetition. If they go on reading me, it may be because the strange and the unknown have always been sources of fascination to all men regardless of race, color, and creed. It is what drives them to explore, experiment, and discover. And even when they fail to discover a new continent or theory, they may discover something even more important. They may discover that the human mind is a universe in its own right and most of it is shrouded in mystery.
*
Freedom, real freedom, does not mean the freedom to do this, that, or the other, but to explore the unknown. And by contrast, clinging to the familiar and the known is subservience and slavery – Ottomanism and Sovietism by other means.
*
At the end of everything I write, I would like to add: I could have said this better. Forgive me if I relied too much on your willingness to work with me.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Monday, August 24, 2009
*******************************************
ON WAR
***********************
People don't declare war, politicians do.
Collective evil is an extension of individual evil as surely as massacres are extensions of serial killers even when they call themselves kings, sultans, emperors, and presidents.
People do not consent to being victimizers and victims.
Victimizers and victims are manufactured as surely as products displayed on shelves in department stores and supermarkets.
*
ON LABELS
**************************
To those of my readers who hang all kinds of nasty labels on me, I say: You are barking up the wrong tree. I am against labels as surely as I am against chief executive officers who manufacture them.
God created man.
It is my ambition to be born again as a human being.
To those who find my ideas unpatriotic or anti-Armenian, I say: Give yourself another decade or two; and if you are as slow as I am, add another decade for good measure.
*
ON BLUNDERS
******************************
I have committed my share – make it, more than my share – of blunders and I know how easy it is to commit them and, having committed them, how hard it is to admit them.
*
ON SUBSERVIENCE
************************************
As long as you remain subservient, you will never discover who you really are and how much power you have.
*
LITERATURE AND PHILANTHROPY
********************************************
When I went into this business I made a vow never to be unkind to anyone. I ascribed most of our problems – divisions, intolerance, dogmatism and so on – to individuals with poor manners acquired in the Ottoman Empire or the Soviet Union, both of which I considered quintessentially unArmenian. For a while I kept my promise. I was kind even to unkind readers until I realized that I was confusing literature with philanthropy. I am not talking an eye for an eye now. I am saying speaking truth to power even if it means exposing liars, frauds, and bloodsuckers.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
*******************************************
A HUMBLE REQUEST
*********************************
Abovian committed suicide,
Baronian was betrayed to the police,
Bakounts was shot,
Mahari was sent to Siberia,
Shahnour survived on $8.00 a month
(compliments of a national benefactor),
Zarian was treated as a madman in the diaspora
and a non-person in the Homeland.
Please, don't call me an Armenian writer.
Call me a marginal scribbler;
but if that's too much to ask,
call me a face in the crowd
whose sole ambition in life
is to be an honest witness.
I may have a better chance to survive that way.
*
WISDOM
*****************
Treat your friends as potential enemies.
*
DIPLOMACY
***********************
Treat your enemies as future friends.
*
IF
**************
If I were to write things with which you agree,
I would be only your echo
and you would be a fool
wasting your time reading yourself.
#
WEDNESDAY, 26 AUGUST, 2009
***********************************************
ON UNDERSTANDING
*****************************
We don't understand ourselves
and the forces that shaped our identity
not because we are incomprehensible
but because those whose task it is
to explain things to us
have done their utmost to muddy the waters.
*
You want to know more about a man?
Ask him questions.
You want to know him better?
Ask his friends.
But if you want to have a balanced view,
cross-examine his enemies.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, 27 August, 2009
***********************************************
HOMELAND
*****************************
Homeland is where you were born and spent your childhood.
Homeland is where you were educated as an adolescent.
Homeland is where you are allowed to work and provide for your family.
I was born in Greece, educated in Italy, and am now a citizen of Canada.
I have three homelands but Armenia is not one of them.
Homeland is where the human rights of a law-abiding citizen are respected.
I do not call homeland a country ruled by former commissars whose role models are executioners.
Homeland is not where respectable young women are driven into prostitution because they have no other option.
Homeland is not where you are beaten up by hoodlums for daring to expose corruption.
Homeland is not where cops no longer catch thieves because, if they did, they would be arresting one another.
Homeland is not where only tourists with deep pockets are welcome with open arms.
Homeland is not where honesty and objectivity are criminal offenses.
Homeland is not where reason is confused with treason.
Homeland is not where its best and brightest are discarded to wander as strangers in strange lands.
Homeland is not where the poor and the needy are dependent on the charity of swine.
Who would have guessed there would come a day when Armenians would miss the good old days under Stalin?
If Naregatsi were alive today he would lament not his many sins, failings, and transgressions but the degradation of the state.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Friday, 28 August, 2009
***********************************************
CHOOSING SIDES
*****************************
Sometimes I am accused of hating myself and my fellow Armenians by readers who are so convinced they are lovable that they cannot imagine anyone capable of resisting their charms.
The flunky of an archbishop once wrote me an angry letter demanding to know if I thought I was the only Armenian writer who has been treated badly. In my reply I said: “No, of course I don't think I am. That is why I speak with the strength of many. And what about you? On whose side are you?”
As you may have guessed, I never heard from him again.
I was reminded of this exchange recently when I read his obituary.
Hating Armenians: what unmitigated nonsense!
I have nothing against honest men, regardless of nationality.
But I loathe exploiters who think you should be grateful to them.
I detest fools who pretend to be so smart that they think they can treat you like an idiot and get away with it.
I can't stand phony patriots who betray their fellow Armenians to the authorities in the name of law and order as established by sultans, commissars and their Ottomanized and Sovietized successors – and here I could make a long list of writers who perished as a result of this aberration.
What's there to like about arrogant dupes who will believe anything that flatters their crippled little egos.
I have nothing but contempt for victims who turn into victimizers the first chance they get, even when their victims happen to be fellow Armenians.
I despise Armenians in positions of power who, after brainwashing us into believing we are in the best of hands, refer to us as “assh*les” and “sh*ts” among themselves.
And you, gentle reader, on whose side are you?
#
Saturday, August 29, 2009
***********************************************
ONE OR TWO THINGS I KNOW
ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS
TO BE BRAINWASHED
********************************************
The brainwashed cannot think for themselves. They believe to think for oneself is almost equivalent to treason.
*
They are like monkeys at the mercy of an invisible organ grinder.
*
They have the same control over their ideas as a parrot has over its vocabulary.
*
When they say “in my opinion,” they mean in someone else's opinion; and when they say “I think,” they lie.
*
The brainwashed don't speak, they can only repeat, recycle, and regurgitate.
*
To be brainwashed is to be dehumanized.
*
He who controls the educational system, shapes the central ideas of the people within that system.
*
Tell me where you were educated and I will tell you what you think.
*
To be brainwashed means to believe you were not brainwashed.
*
To brainwash means to make the most absurd lie appear as the most self-evident truth.
*
To be brainwashed means to believe you are morally superior to those who live on the other side of a river or mountain.
*
To be brainwashed means to believe the mud of your country is of superior quality to the mud of all other countries.
*
The brainwashed believe if they slaughter innocent and defenseless human beings, they will be rewarded in heaven.
*
To be brainwashed means to blur the line that separates a serial killer from a hero.
*
I speak from experience.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, August 30, 2009
***********************************************
A DEFINITION OF FASCISM
********************************************
#
WHAT WE NEED
**********************
-Foreign investments, economists, entrepreneurs, industrialists.
-A police force with the latest computerized gadgets.
-A disciplined and well-trained army with the best hardware and delivery system money can buy.
-Law-and-order judges.
-Medical doctors, specialists, and hospitals with up-to-date diagnostic tools.
-Experienced and competent mechanics and repairmen.
-Architects, artists, and sculptors,
-Four-star chefs.
-Athletes of all kinds.
-Actors, directors, singers, dancers, and choreographers.
-Composers, conductors, and instrumentalists.
-Novelists, poets, playwrights.
-Experts in all fields of human endeavor.
*
WHAT WE DON'T NEED
*************************************
Dissidents.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Monday, August 31, 2009
***********************************************
COVER UP
********************************************
There is only one way to never make mistakes and that is by not admitting them.
*
Watergate was exposed by a free press and an independent judiciary. We have neither the first nor the second. As a result, our blunders can safely remain covered up and our blunderers can continue to parade as men of integrity and able statesmen worthy of universal respect.
*
When after the collapse of the Soviet Union a KGB agent established himself in America, published his memoirs in which he said they (the KGB) had been successful in planting their own agents into the ARF leadership, and I quoted the relevant passages in my review of the book, a very angry insider called and started yelling at me, “How dare you write such nonsense!”
*
When Antranik Zaroukian, as a member of the Party, asked permission to edit a literary periodical independent of Party control, permission was denied. Result: a moribund literature and a stagnant press monopolized by Turcocentric editors and ghazetajis.
*
Something similar could be said of our political parties in the Homeland, whose main function appears to be to cover up their collaboration with the Kremlin and the systematic extermination of our ablest men. Result: the nation remains at the mercy of leaders who are the offspring of criminals who got away with murder.
*
Now, consider what happened in France immediately after World War II. All those guilty of collaborating with the Germans were immediately arrested, tried, found guilty, and condemned to death as traitors. Marshall Petain (called “Putain” = xxxxx), former minister of war, hero of World War I, and head of state during the occupation, was among the condemned. Result: the French judiciary recovered its independence, the French press is flourishing, and French literature is so alive and well that writers of all nations feel welcomed enough to give up their mother tongue and write in French. Ionesco (Romanian), Beckett (Irishman), and Adamov (Armenian), three of the most influential playwrights in world literature, wrote in French.
*
And speaking of Armenian writers writing in French: A best-selling writer by the name of Mamikonian (I forget her first name) was recently approached by Armenian monarchists who urged her to be the queen of Armenia. When she rejected the offer, they threatened to abduct her children. For a while she and her family were under police protection. For all I know, they still are.
Moral: Some Armenians would rather be a second-rate French writer than the first-rate queen of a nation that was first to convert to Christianity and first to be almost exterminated in the 20th century (and why we like to brag about that, I will be damned if I know).
#